For some time, the design of various electronic components has been driven by a general industry trend toward miniaturization. For example, it may be desirable in certain applications to have very small devices including passive components such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, or combinations of such components. It may be desirable in other applications to have very small devices that include some combination of passive components to provide additional circuit functionality, such as filter circuits for various applications including low-pass, electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI) filtering.
The size and arrangement of termination features for an electronic component has also been an important feature of such components. Relatively larger termination features can require valuable real estate within an electronic component, thus limiting potential component miniaturization. Larger termination features may also introduce higher levels of equivalent series inductance (ESL), which can yield undesirable effects in circuit performance, especially at high operating frequencies.
Some known termination arrangements for small electronic components correspond to wire bonding, ball grid array (BGA) and/or land grid array (LGA) techniques and others. Such techniques often require a significant amount of component real estate on the active component surface(s) for the formation of solder balls or lands. In addition, components having such termination arrangements are often limited to mounting on only one side of a component. For example, BGA and LGA devices are often formed for inverted mounting to a surface. Wire bonding also often requires connection from a given location on an electronic component to mounting locations on a surface.
The BGA technique illustrated in FIG. 15 as well as other known techniques such as LGA and wire bonding not only often require a significant amount of component real estate on the active component surface(s) for the formation of solder balls or lands, but also typically add substantial cost to the finished component. In addition, components having such termination arrangements are often limited to mounting on only one side of a component. For example, BGA and LGA devices are often formed for inverted mounting to a surface. Wire bonding also often requires connection from a given location on an electronic component to mounting locations on a surface.
In addition, thin film devices are sometimes limited to having circuit functionality only as formed with thin film circuitry on a single substrate surface. Such thin film circuits remain without additional possible circuit functionality and/or structural protection provided on top of the thin film circuit(s).
In light of the various design concerns in the field of electronic components, a need continues to exist for ever smaller electronic components having selected operating characteristics that are also compatible with high volume, low cost assembly methods. While various implementations of passive electronic components and associated features have been developed, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.